Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

@sergii Even Russia is not able to provide enough ammo for itself to shoot as much as it wants. Limiting ammo exports to Russia means limiting their destructive abilities.

@sergii https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/06/russia-buying-millions-rockets-shells-north-korea-us-intelligence-ukraine but it could also be that that story is disinfo from the #US intelligence. There does seem to be other evidence that it could be true.

@gwagner One key factor is that Austria believes that the train experience should be better than other transport methods, and puts real money into trying. My experience in #NYC and #California is that the public generally views public transit as something for people without money or who feel guilty about the environmental impact of cars. So they don't spend what it takes to make it work well. So often in #Vienna, trains are the *most* convenient way to get somewhere.

@johnquiggin @gwagner Outside of the busy central areas of #Austria, even in #Vienna, it is still quite common here for people to thank the bus or tram driver as you leave. My family all does it, I'm a fan. But yes, grumpiness is a kind of default public persona in Austria.

I always wondered why the anti-#VietnamWar protests seemed ineffective at ending it, even though so many parts of society where involved: business, clergy, politicians, hippies, etc. Based on declassified docs, Nixon and Kissinger had a fully developed military plan to massively increase attacks on Vietnam, including using nukes. They just had to give the generals the go ahead. The protests actually convinced them they couldn't get away with it, so that plan was canceled. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman/

Even #Russia, one of the world's major weapons suppliers, is limited in what it can do because it is running out of ammo. They are trying to buy more from whoever will sell it. #Egypt was going to sell ammo to Russia, but when the deal became public, they canceled it because of sanctions. When looking at less powerful nations at war like #Sudan, #Congo and more, the impact of limiting weapons sales can be even greater. The hard part is reigning in domestic corporations that make big profits 2/2

When talking about why wars continue, the focus is so often about the reasons why people are fighting. That is valid, but there are many factors. One key one that is rarely reported on is the supply of weapons. If those who fight have only rifles, the scale of the damage will be drastically less than if they have artillery. The stories of #Ukraine and #Russia running out of ammo show a way to affect wars: do not supply them. This is #Austria and #Switzerland 's law and it can be effective 1/2

Vice has a good article on that demo: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvb4x/palantir-demos-ai-to-fight-wars-but-says-it-will-be-totally-ethical-dont-worry-about-it When viewing something like this, is important to consider what the #US considers legal. Apparently, mass bombing, death, and destruction by the military is fully legal there since there has been no prosecutions for running the #IraqWar #AfghanWar #VietnamWar etc.

#Palantir demos #LLM in #war, it is sadly ironic how often they say "safe and ethical": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEM5qz__HOU

Looks like the SAGE mentality is alive and well in the US military industrial context, and the #SiliconValley is still driving it. For example, that demo shows they still pretend to be able to get perfect info to feed their centralized, automated overview. This chapter from the book Closed World gives good insight into the mentality of this kind of project: https://web.archive.org/web/20011116023240/http://www.si.umich.edu/~pne/PDF/cw.ch3.pdf

Now I'm getting excited to go to #CriticalMass in #Bratislava https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei4tNRNge_Y

@rene_mobile I totally agree that's not how it should work. Unfortunately, it looks pretty clear that is how it is working for things like training #AI image generation tools. Heavy reliance on "opt-out" is sadly the norm.

"How can you know what you want or feel or think—who you are—if you don’t know which way history’s marionette strings are tugging?" - one of the nice ways of framing history in the #PaloAlto book https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/palo-alto-malcolm-harris-review/